A retired couple, living in Florida, were sitting on their front porch one evening. The wife was just watching the people go by. The husband was reading a book on physiology. The wife turned to her husband and said, “George, let’s go inside and watch the late show.” To which George replied, “I’m too tired. Do you realize that today my heart beat 103,389 times? My blood Travelled 168,000 miles. I breathed 23,000 times. I inhaled 483 cubic feet of air. I moved 750 major muscles -- and to top it all off I exercised 7 million brain cells. I’m exhausted. I’m going to bed.”

All that work! Just to stay alive, all in one day! And if that isn’t enough to make you want to go to bed, imagine that you have been conditioned to believe that you are only a grain of sand with little or no control over your fate. Combine that with your concern for your job, family, investment portfolio and all of the rest of what’s ailing you. How can you maintain any feeling of well-being when you must spend most of your time and effort, worrying and merely trying to survive?

But take heart! Over-and-over again the Gospel writers remind us that the darkest night can be turned into the brightest day, that a human person is amazingly resilient, a miracle of God’s creation, and “capable of rescuing itself from its own living death, many times -- if it is given the opportunity and shown the way.”

In the tenth chapter of John there are two of those “I am” passages. In today’s Gospel Lesson, Jesus assures us, “I am the Good Shepherd” (Jn. 10:11). Earlier in the chapter, He says, “I am the Gate of the sheepfold” (Jn. 10:7). In order to appreciate what He is saying, we need a little background review. The background is pastoral, of course. Jesus is speaking about sheep and shepherds.

A good shepherd will spend hours searching for a single sheep that is missing, fearful that the animal may be “casting.” He knows that a cast sheep is in a helpless position. Left to its own resources it is powerless to right itself, get back on its feet. It needs to be rescued, saved. And rescuing a cast sheep is one of the most rewarding experiences in the life of a good shepherd. In the words of one ...

Again and again I would spend hours searching for a single sheep that was missing. Then, more often than not I would see it at a distance, down on its back, lying helpless. At once I would start to run toward it -- hurrying as fast as I could -- for every minute was critical. Within me there was a mingled sense of fear and joy: fear it might be too late; joy that it was found at all. As soon as I reached the cast sheep my very first impulse was to pick it up, tenderly. I would roll the animal on its side. If it had been down for long I would lift it to its feet. Then I would hold it erect, rubbing its limbs to restore the circulation. This often took quite a little time ... All the time I would work on the cast sheep I would talk to it gently, “When are you going to learn to stand on your own feet? I’m so glad I found you in time, you rascal.” And so the conversation would go, always couched in language that combined tenderness and rebuke, compassion and correction. Little by little the sheep would regain its equilibrium. It would start to walk steadily and surely. Shortly after it would dash away to join the others, set free from its fears and frustrations, given another chance to live. [1] 1

“What person among you,” Jesus asked, “with a hundred sheep, losing one, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the missing one till it is found? And when found, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders and then when he got home, call together his friends and neighbours? ‘Rejoice with me,’ he would say, ‘I have found my sheep that was lost.’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance” (Lk. 15:4-7).

To the people of Jesus’ time, the Parable of the Lost Sheep was a powerful message because they were on intimate terms with the nuts and bolts of shepherding. The imagery was clear and unmistakable. God delights in God’s human flock, gives everything to the human flock, rejoices in seeing the flock grow and develop, is constantly on the watch and ready to save any individual member who, for whatever reason, is lost or in distress. In other words, God cares. God infinitely cares. And Jesus has come as the Supreme revelation of God’s loving concern for each one of us.

“I am the Good Shepherd,” Jesus assures us. “Follow Me!” But we are not sheep. We are human beings in whom God has vested the power of choice: to accept or reject Jesus’ invitation; to believe or disbelieve that we are more than a grain of sand with little or no control over our own fate; to believe or disbelieve that we are a miracle of God’s creation capable of rescuing our self from our own living death; to believe or disbelieve that we can transform the struggle for mere survival into the marvelous life-enriching adventure Jesus offers us. Our power of choice is real. Use it wisely...

Choose to persevere ... rather than quit.

Choose to praise ... rather than gossip.

Choose to heal ... rather than wound.

Choose to give ... rather than steal.

Choose to act ... rather than procrastinate.

Choose to grow ... rather than rot.

Choose to pray ... rather than curse.

Choose to live ... rather than die.

You are free to choose whether to sink into the worldly despair that threaten to dehumanize us or, as powerful instruments of the Amazing Grace of God, to help redeem it. Follow Him -- the Good Shepherd who gives you the opportunity and shows you the way to become the uniquely beautiful person God intends for you to be. The choice is yours!

If events are crowding in on you, if you are feeling like a cast sheep, flat on your back and powerless to right yourself, take heart! Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is searching for you. Jesus will come to rescue you from your fears and frustrations, and give you another chance to live!

Many years ago a large industrial corporation erected a new headquarters building. They laid a cornerstone which contained various predictions of what the world would be like one hundred years. Among the many eyebrow-raising forecasts was one signed by the corporate chairman. It read: “One hundred years from now and five hundred years from now, men and women will still struggle for happiness, which will continue to lie within themselves.”

A wise reminder for us who live in the here-and-now! When we have lapsed into a situation of unhappiness, when we become separated from the flock, when we become estranged from God, we need the silence of the wilderness in order to hear the Good Shepherd calling us back.

The wilderness experience is no respecter of persons, and it comes in a host of life situations.

There is the wilderness of grief, and the wilderness of physical pain and suffering, There is the wilderness of fear ... and disappointment ... and loneliness ... and betrayal ... and on and on. The wilderness experience is part of life. We can’t escape it. We can’t understand it fully. But we know that somehow, in some hidden way, it is a necessary ingredient in our growth and development as human persons.

Our ability to cope with these often tremendous difficulties depends, absolutely, on an abiding trust in God’s goodness, and God’s promise never to abandon us.

The ultimate wilderness experience comes when we try to go it alone, no longer depending on God. And when we separate ourselves from God by abandoning our Faith in God’s promise to make all things new, our lives become aimless and our humanity is diminished. And yet, in our lostness, God keeps on loving us. And that is why we don’t have to chop down the forest to get out of the wilderness. We need only to listen to the Voice of God that never ceases to call us. And as we follow God’s Voice, we come out of the wilderness, leaning on the Lord, and ready to love in return.

“The Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost,” says the Lord (Lk. 19:10). Listen to Love and you will discover that finding your way out the wilderness of an aimless existence and into wholeness of life in Christ, is more like cultivating a garden than chopping down a forest.

[1] adapted from “The Greatest Miracle In The World” by Og Mendino.